The Rubenstein Collection (social anthropology)
You may have noticed that in the cabinet on level 2 of the Main Library we’ve recently displayed a number of social anthropology books. This is just a small selection of a much larger collection of books which the University library has been cataloguing and which are now available to borrow. The collection comprises over 1200 books belonging to the late Dr Steven Lee Rubenstein, an American anthropologist.
The focus of Dr Rubenstein’s research was the Shuar nation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Hombre Shuar by Kleverenrique – licensed by CC-BY-SA 3.0
Adding to our existing holdings and especially those in the Centre for Amerindian Studies (CAS) Collection these new books contribute to strengthening our collections in the area of anthropology and in particular those relating to South America.
The personal library of Dr Rubenstein duplicates some of our existing stock allowing us to make more multiple copies available to students and improve the availability of materials used in teaching. However, the main strength of the collection is its broad scope providing us with access to many new titles which reflect Dr Rubenstein’s conviction that anthropology contributes to broad discussions that traverse the social sciences and humanities.
Along with Dr Rubenstein’s own works Alejandro Tsakimp: a Shuar healer in the margins of history and Border crossings: transnational American anthropology here are just a few of the titles available in the collection:
- Up de Graff, F.W. 1923. Head hunters on the Amazon: seven years of exploration and adventure. New York; Garden City
- Summerhill, S.J. 2000. Sinking Columbus: contested history, cultural politics and mythmaking during the quincentenary. Gainesville: University Press of Florida
- Castner, J.L. 2002. Shrunken heads: tsanta trophies and human exotica. Gainesville: Feline Press
- Caplan, J. 2000. Written on the body: the tattoo in European and American history. Princeton: Princeton University Press
- George, K.M. 1996. Showing signs of violence: the cultural politics of a twentieth-century headhunting ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press.
If you have any questions about the collection then please contact us at [email protected]
Find out more about the work of Dr Rubenstein
- A biography kindly written by Dr Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti (formerly of the Department for Social Anthropology) is available to download from our Named Modern Collections webpage.
- Journal articles published by Dr Rubenstein are available via the University Library and include:
o Rubenstein, S. 2006. Circulation, accumulation and the power of Shuar shrunken heads. Cultural Anthropology. 22 (3): 357-399
o Rubenstein, S. 2012. On the importance of visions among the Amazonian Shuar. Current Anthropology 53(1): 39-79
o Rubenstein, S. 2001. Colonialism, the Shuar Federation, and the Ecuadorian state. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 19 (3): 263-293
o Rubenstein, S. 2004. Fieldwork and the erotic economy on the colonial frontier. Signs. 29 (4): 1041-107 - While Dr Rubenstein’s personal academic library was donated to University of St Andrews his field recordings, notes and other papers are available in the Benson Collection at the University of Texas